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“The purpose for creating the UNCC SWAT Team is to protect the community and prevent the loss of life,” said Lieutenant Josh Huffman of Campus Police. “We must be prepared to respond to high risk situations such as those tragedies that occurred at Virginia Tech and Columbine.” . . .

With all this training it would seem these men would be anxious to use it, but they’re not. Considering the conditions needed for the men to utilize their past training, many, including Baker, never hope to see that day.

“I would be the first to admit that I hope we are never placed into action,” Baker said. “However, it is critical to be prepared to respond to a variety of serious/high risk incidents that have occurred on campuses throughout the nation.”

Yes. Virginia Tech and Columbine. Now, let’s look at the numbers: Any given middle school, high school, or college in America can expect to have exactly one homicide on its campus every 12,000 years. So how long before the UNC-Charlotte SWAT team feels the need to justify its existence by expanding its mission? I predict they’re serving drug warrants and raiding frat houses within a year.

“The purpose for creating the UNCC SWAT Team is to protect the community and prevent the loss of life,”
I bet there have been more SWAT related deaths than deaths from Columbine type incidents over the past decade.

“The purpose for creating the UNCC SWAT Team is to protect the community and prevent the loss of life,”

(sarcasm)Yeah, because SWAT teams have been so effective at stopping these kinds of incidents.(/sarcasm)

Yes, within a year they will be serving warrants for drugs and stolen game systems. And if the there actually IS a situation where they could be legitimately called? They’ll show up too late to be useful.

If there is a mass murder spree on campus, and the perpetrator[s]are heavily armed and methodically kiling people in a building, I would bet that these guys would wait outside, as their brethren did at Columbine, until the shooters off themselves or students/teachers over power the killer[s].. the military fantasies of these guys are exposed to the light of day when they quail with terror –with their automatic weapons –outside the building in safety, while students and teachers are being slaughtered. In other words, they want nothing to do with a fair fight— somebody who has comparable weaponry [maybe body armour] and will shoot to kill. These guys are not Marines or soldiers.

Six months tops. These guys are going to get antsy and want some action. They want to bust some heads. They’ll be throwing flash bangs in to frat houses in no time. They’ll be shooting unarmed students and claim that they thought their cell phone was a gun.

There’s obviously no need for this on any college campus.

And what do you want to bet that if you did some digging, they’re funding this in part with DHS money?

Anyone who has ever had to deal with the people who populate campus police units must be shaking in their boots over giving these guys body armor and automatic weapons.
I think previous commentators are correct: in about 6 or so months, just in time for Fall semester, they’ll be kicking in frat house doors for drug busts and underage drinking.
So here is another school that I can cross of my child’s list of prospective colleges.

My town, South Pasadena, CA, just purchased an armored vehicle. Made the front page of the local newspaper. We have about 25,000 people in our town, and the crime blotter reads like something from Mayberry. Sigh. Guess its time to write a letter to the editor.

The one reasonable, intelligent person on the squad: “What? No! I’m not going to go outside in half of my tactical gear and pose with you guys with the “tough guy” face and pretend I’m a badass!”

“What? Why not? Well, because we’ll all look like a bunch of douchebags, that’s why. Why? Did you think it was going to look cool for a group of overweight old guys to put their helmets on wih their chinstraps off-center and stand in street clothing wearing kneepads and tac vests that don’t fit? because if you do, I don’t think i want to be on this squad anymore.”

Gets up, walks out of the room.

The rest of the squad: “Get your game faces on, boys, we’ve got a picture to take!”

@ 35 Fred – I’m of the opinion that anyone in public should be allowed to carry guns. The entire idea of a “gun free” zone just sounds too much like a shooting gallery for anyone that isn’t concerned with breaking the law.

That being said, I’m even more for people in uniform being allowed to carry a gun because they are the ones who will be the aforementioned crazy a-hole’s first target and should be allowed to defend themselves.

My main quibble with that is that too many police use their weapons in offensive situations rather than self-defense only. Violence for any purpose other than self-defense is simply morally wrong – I don’t care if you wear a badge or not.

Maybe a student-led drive to require the SWAT team to meet Marine Corps physical fitness standards? Seems reasonable to me, given the rigors such groups face. Can’t have a sloppy-fat SWAT team, it’s for their own good….

I do not understand the “joke” or the “Rambo.” We meet at the range every night and shoot 400 rounds each through weapons that closely resemble our duty setup. We also practice unarmed combat. I am a Master of three martial arts including ninjitsu, which means I can wear the special boots to climb walls. I don’t think any of you are working as hard as I am to be prepared.

If you want to laugh at somebody, try laughing at the sheep out there who go to college unarmed trusting in me to stand guiard over their lives like a God.

@ Goober: Don’t get the wrong idea. I’m an NRA Life Member and used to be a bit of a gun nut myself. I don’t have a problem with anyone carrying guns. Just thought some here might enjoy reading the story.

1) First off, I think you’re lying. You meet “every might”? And pop off “400 rounds” through your various whizbangs? Between the time required to shoot 400 rounds, clear the range to check/switch targets, and reload the various mags, that’s….what….3 hours a night? 4, if you count the ubiquitous shooting-the-shit that goes along with such activity? “Every night”? For free?? I call bullshit, Mr. Miyagi.
2) On the off chance you’re NOT lying through your teeth, if a badass “Master of 3 martial arts” with “special boots” like you is representative of most SWAT guys, then how come the deadly swift & silent SWAT studs of Columbine & VA Tech hid like little bitches until they were sure the bad actors were safely down & neutralized? Is that what Steven Seagal or Jean-Claude Van Damme would have done in that situation? I think not.

Maybe the Special in Special Weapons and Tactics in this case means the Olympics. Still blows my mind that Americans think that adding more guns to a situation makes it safer. Just think, if everyone had a gun, no one would get shot! We’d be super safe!

Note to all civilian swat type units: the military “at ease” posture with your hands behind your backs only looks professional if you don’t appear to be straining to get your hands behind your backs. I think one of the people in the back row is holding the guy on the far left’s hands back there for him.

Back when I was in college, the library was having some problems with pigeons roosting in the bell tower. Campus security was called in, and they proceeded to try to shoot the pigeons with .22 rifles. Didn’t hit a darn bird, but did shoot a number of holes in the bronze roof of the bell tower. I wouldn’t trust those people with bb guns, much less any military type equipment….

#40, “Mall Ninja”: “If you want to laugh at somebody, try laughing at the sheep out there who go to college unarmed trusting in me to stand guiard over their lives like a God.”

Initially, I laughed at you because I really thought you were kidding. And if you are, kudos to you for staying in character. I am in awe of how you stand guard over those students’ lives, which hang by a thread which you dangles from between your fingers while you suspend yourself from the wall using your ninja skills.

No one has anything against being prepared. But what are you preparing for? Again, a Virginia Tech type shooting is only likely to happen once every 12,000 years at any given school. If you are truly spending every night putting 400 rounds through your weapon to better do policing, you are wasting your time and money. Yes, maintain your skill level. But if you spend that time interacting with actual humans, maybe studying psychology, and broadening your horizons rather than spending every waking minute preparing to be in a John Woo movie, you might be less inclined to have to resort to violence when you actually are in a dangerous situation…which is safer for you and those around you.

This is bullshit. Who asked for this? Do a preemptive raid on these guys lockers and arrest them for steroid abuse.

Soon it’ll be “we need to attach these remote control tasers to you, to save you from pre-threats abroad”. How is it our parents/grandparents who grew up in a freer society end up being so friggin scared? The students pay and spend the most time on campus, the students should decide if a swat team is needed.

Students take your responsibility back. You make the college run, not them.

For those of you confused about the Mall Ninja’s comment, it is totally tongue-in-cheek, they are in character. The origin of this meme escapes me, but poke around the intertubes a bit and you’ll see all kinds of references to it.

This is a naysayer’s page. Anti gun group. I would venture to say 30 to 40 of the comments are of the same person or the same Frat house of which do not like police, and thats their perogative. Don’t sit behind the computer and slash officers because you were written a speeding ticket or had a Frat party shut down early. Maybe you should send your full name and inform them that if you or your children (which you probably don’t have any) are in trouble with crazy gunmen, terrorists or any other threat, they can be sure to overlook you and your family in the time of need. I personally pray that, God forbid, my child is ever in danger, I don’t care if the helping hand is fat, black, white, female as long as they are there to help. I am thankful we have fat, skinny, female, male or any other sort of person to be there. You (writers in this blog) obvioulsy would be of no assitance and I hope if you were in the room during a life threating event, I would hope the police, swat or any others would skip over you to assist my child. I want them there.

This is a naysayer’s page. Anti gun group. I would venture to say 30 to 40 of the comments are of the same person or the same Frat house of which do not like police, and thats their perogative. Don’t sit behind the computer and slash officers because you were written a speeding ticket or had a Frat party shut down early. Maybe you should send your full name and inform them that if you or your children (which you probably don’t have any) are in trouble with crazy gunmen, terrorists or any other threat, they can be sure to overlook you and your family in the time of need. I personally pray that, God forbid, my child is ever in danger, I don’t care if the helping hand is fat, black, white, female as long as they are there to help. I am thankful we have fat, skinny, female, male or any other sort of person to be there. You (writers in this blog) obvioulsy would be of no assitance and I hope if you were in the room during a life threating event, I would hope the police, swat or any others would skip over you to assist my child. I want them there.

“you can please some of the people some of the time. but you cant please all the people all the time.”

It will be interesting if my prior post gets “modreated approved” I am most certain the people writing these comments do NOT have children. some are prob bald. who knows. I am not here to bash how one looks. But I would venture to say the people that carry weight can lose weight but the ones that lose their hair worrying about police officers and their ability, can never grow their hair back. Quit getting your panties in a wad and let the officers do their job. I am sorry you don’t like the picture of the men in uniforms.

ParentofUNCCStudent, you need to improve your reading comprehension. The comments are not largely by the same person; unlike some other sites in the web, commenters here are not astroturfing. The allegation that everybody here is a pissed-off fratboy is pathetic and insults our intelligence.
Your posting totally fails to address the fundamental point in Radley’s post, namely that this SWAT unit is a solution looking for a problem.
The rest of your posting reads like a rant from a high school drop-out. Did you have some sort of argument or point that you wished to make? You could simply have said “STFU the lot of you” and wasted a lot less of your time and ours.

I am sure that others have noticed this, but all you have to do is look at the picture and focus on their shoes to see the level of “professionalism” you can expect from this shining shower of misfits.

I wonder if the past performances of SWAT teams when their lives are truly on the line will make you feel bit better about the things being said on here. For instance, at both columbine and VT, SWAT teams were scrambled but did nothing to stop the shootigns because there was too much risk. So the abd guys got to shoot kids until they got tired of it and killed themselves, while the big, bad men outside in full body armor with automatic weapons quailed in fear of going in to do something about it.

To be quite honest, you are being an idiot if you think that having a SWAT team on your kid’s campus makes him or her any safer. In teh 30 minutes at best it takes them to scramble, how many kids will your theoretical gunmen or terrorist be able to kill? Even IF the SWAT team is higly trained, massively professional, and badass to the point of awe, they are 30 minutes out. If you are truly afraid for your child, then the best thing you can do is teach them to take care of themselves. Arm them. Teach them self defense. Teach them how to get out of a bad situation.

No, the truth is here the same as it is everywhere else – the SWAT team will rarely be used at first, until they get tired of doing nothing, and then they will begin to look for the smallest pretense to use them for any purpose at all. When your child gets flashbanged, mauled, cuffed, and beat to hell by the SWAT raid that meant to raid the dorm next door because someone smelled marijuana in the hallway and got the wrong door, don’t come crying to us. That is what SWAT teams do. if you don’t believe that, you need to look at the stats, because you are being lied to.

Oh, and UNCC parent – since the police have no duty to protect you or your family (look it up, I’m not joking), and since you are as likely to get hurt by the police as you are the criminal you’re fighting, then my answer is yes – I would gladly forego all use of my local SWAT team and just take care of it myself, with two caveats – I am not held to a higher standard than the police when I am forced to use deadly force (they get away with things that I would go to jail for all the time) and I don’t have to pay the portion of my taxes that goes to their support. With those two things on my side, I’d be glad to forego all SWAT support.

Lol, You need to learn how to read before you get your panties in a wad. I never alleged that everyone here was a FRAT boy now did I? Go back and read.

soOoo STFU!! (your own words) since thats the only simple minded phrase you can read or understand. Try to hang onto the hair you have, (don’t lose it over this, it doesn’t grow back) us women are not impressed with ding-dongs like you, so all of you should go “occupy” somewhere in a park or something. I still venture to say, the writers on here lead back mostly to a handful of occupiers of sorts. lol.

Hey, I have an idea! I can loan ALL of you my son’s gamer equipment. That should keep your minds occupied for awhile. ;) tsk tsk Your parents should be so proud of how you utilize all of their hard earned money. This is how you use your education? Really?

“Maybe they can get some training from the Durham guys who killed Peyton Strickland in his foyer.” Burgers Allday, maybe you should refrain from commenting on something you apparently know #### all about. Peyton Strickland was a resident of Durham NC who was a student at UNC Wilmington when he was shot by a New Hanover County Deputy during a raid to recover a stolen Playstation 3. Peyton was unarmed. The Deputy was wrong in every way. The use of a SWAT team for such a warrant service was excessive, but Durham PD SET was not involved. If you’re gonna criticize at least get it right.

Just randomly ran across this thread…Back in the late sixties, while a student at UNCC, I was privileged to witness a Black Power demonstration and march led by Ben Chavis during some days of campus unrest/activity. Who would like to bet that these SWAT hotshots wouldn’t like to interject themselves into a situation like that and “save” the educational environment? Ah…memories of Kent State.